North Korea brokers peace between Republicans and Democrats

You can probably kiss ‘”The Interview” goodbye, experts say, but what’s the next step?

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch)—Michael Moore and Newt Gingrich, voicing the same sentiment. Rob Lowe and John McCain, agreeing the U.S. isn’t displaying enough strength. Alan Dershowitz and Mitt Romney, calling for some sort of response.

Hollywood and Washington are making for some strange bedfellows in the wake of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s
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decision Wednesday to quash its film spoofing North Korea, “The Interview.” Never mind the series of digital attacks on the studio and threats of violence against theatergoers, these usually divergent minds agree for once on something: that the U.S. and Hollywood can’t stand by idly and let North Korea trample on the First Amendment.

Consider the comments of Dershowitz, a renowned liberal and constitutional lawyer, who offered perhaps the strongest response to Sony’s decision to back down.

“They have declared war on our First Amendment and they have won the first victory,” Dershowitz said on CNN late Wednesday. “This is Pearl Harbor on the First Amendment. We have to decide how to respond and we must respond.”

There also are countless Tweets, saying the same thing on both sides of the spectrum. Noted liberal documentary producer Michael Moore said: “Dear Sony Hackers: now that u run Hollywood, I’d also like less romantic comedies, fewer Michael Bay movies and no more Transformers.”

And actor Rob Lowe, who has embraced libertarian ideals in the past, said: “Wow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them. Wow.”

No one should kid themselves. With the Sony collapse America has lost its first cyberwar. This is a very very dangerous precedent.

There’s not much contrast with Tweets from conservative Republican Newt Gingrich, who said on Twitter: “No one should kid themselves. With the Sony collapse, America has lost its first cyberwar. This is a very, very dangerous precedent.”

Further, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona wanted to know Thursday how the administration of his one-time rival for the Oval Office, President Barack Obama, would respond. McCain fretted over Sony’s decision to pull “The Interview” from distribution in light of physical threats by hackers who the U.S. now says are backed by North Korea.

“By effectively yielding to aggressive acts of cyberterrorism by North Korea, that decision sets a troubling precedent that will only empower and embolden bad actors to use cyber as an offensive weapon even more aggressively in the future,” McCain said in a prepared statement. ““But, make no mistake. The need for Sony Pictures to make that decision ultimately arose from the Administration’s continuing failure to satisfactorily address the use of cyberweapons by our nation’s enemies.”

So besides more vigorous cybersecurity measures, what is the next step? On a small scale, Gingrich and Mitt Romney are calling for Sony to go ahead with free digital distribution of “The Interview,” which was supposed to be a comedy about two fictional bumbling journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate the real-life leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.

The film features a scene in which the character playing Kim is killed aboard a helicopter in slow-motion video. As a military shell hits the aircraft, causing it to burst into flames. Kim watches with horror while his helicopter disintegrates, and as the flames reach him, his head explodes.

Sony’s decision to drop the film has had a chain reaction of sorts. A planned film starring Steve Carell, “Pyongyang,” has been axed and a “Team America: World Police” film spoofing North Korea also is being taken out of circulation by Viacom Inc.’s
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Paramount Pictures unit.

The question is whether the Obama administration go farther in its response to North Korea, or if it wants to do so.

Military force is out of the question now that the threat from North Korea has been quelled by Sony’s decision to pull “The Interview” from distribution. But what about economic sanctions?

“This is a state that is not easily reachable,” said Jonathan D. Pollack, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies. “This is a very tough nut to crack.”

Much of North Korea’s economy is tied to its longtime ally, China, Pollack says, but even China is growing impatient with its much-smaller neighbor. In past skirmishes, the U.S. has targeted North Korean bank accounts in Macau and achieved some success.

One thing the U.S. should take into account going forward, he adds is that North Korean elites see “The Interview” and any other spoof of their society as a blow to their dignity.

“The elites of North Korea take cinema very seriously,” he said. “It validates, in their mind, that the United States, writ large, has a hostile attitude toward them.”

Pollack says Sony and theater owners probably are throwing in the towel too quickly, since North Korea has made physical threats in the past.

But Ashley McCown, a public-relations firm president who specializes in crisis management, says that was the studio’s only option to avoid transforming from hack victim to scapegoat.

“I think it’s a real wake-up call. I don’t think anyone will be making movies about North Korea soon,” she said. “I think it may get Hollywood to look at when do you cross the line when trying to be funny.”

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